http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/program_areas/events/historical/blizzardof1978/images/benko2.jpg
It is not an entirely accurate image.
At least not in the recent decade or so.
We have been pretty blessed with mild winters and typically hot sweaty Hoosier summers.
The thing that HAS changed is that we no longer have four clearly defined seasons any more it seems.
Winter belabors us into begging for glimpses of mud, long ago giving up the hopes of seeing sweet young green tufts of grass popping up through melting snow and along slowly languishing icy patches.
Then, just as we have unrolled our last line of hope and good will, clinging on to life in the gray white state of blah that stretches along the varying landscape - 60 degree days pop onto the scene and melt everything into flash floods and washouts. Quickly the 70 degree days tease early planters to death flipping onto Randy Ollis' weather forecast for three days in a row. Then a late late season snow and one last frost comes to kill the precious young buds that foretell of beautiful tender fruits that would have been the young life of that year's orchards and gardens tucked in here and there in Hoosier's lives for generations.
Its enough to make any regular Joe or Judy just throw in the towel and move south.
Not us died in the wool Hoosiers though...
Not us ones who KNOW.
Those of us who KNOW what secrets Indiana holds.
We KNOW what buried treasure there is out there for us by living in this seemingly boring, white bread and butter, corn and beans world.
We let the rest of the world pass us by, because we know even with our truncated change of seasons, even with our lack of huge municipal funds to exact great changes in our communities (for there really are NO huge municipalities around to source that kind of fairy tale pot of gold), even with our clinging to generations of traditions that had more relevance in the past, we really KNOW we have the good life right here.
We really know that sometimes our unexpected harsh weather pushes us back to things we really know are the best things in life.
When mother nature spreads her hands to dump a big heaping of what ever she wants on us this season we know that the most important things are our loved ones.
Modern conveniences do not mean much when we do not have a connection to others. The ones we love, the ones we have spent years (or just beginning to spend years) pulling and pushing through this so-called hum drum life tucked in between the corn fields, cow pastures, factories, small towns, rivers, hills and hollows that we call Indiana are what REALLY make this place so special.
It takes a special kind of creative life to repeatedly bring something forth from the depths of your heart that starts out as a feeling, becomes an idea, and then materializes soon into a new direction in life. This is what is needed every single day to stay connected, vibrant, and eternally in love with this Indiana of 2014.
So here I extract another post from the depths of my heart securely wrapped up against the frosts and blasting winds of this harsh Indiana winter of 2013 - 2014. I sit at my laptop, sweet hot tea, cozy homemade afghans, throw pillows and my loved ones at arms length waiting to be folded up and told how precious they are just by my silent cuddle and pleased look on my face.
Take this long winter's pause to just become human again, take in the wonders your life has unfolded for you and understand that this too shall pass.
-Suzanna
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